Daodejing I. 34.

Great Tao is like a boat that drifts;
It can go this way; it can go that.
The ten thousand creatures owe their existence to it and it does not disown them;
Yet having produced them, it does not take possession of them.
Makes no claim to be master over them,
(And asks for nothing from them.)
Therefore it may be called the Lowly.
The ten thousand creatures obey it,
Though they know not that they have a master;
Therefore it is called the Great.
So too the Sage just because he never at any time makes a show of greatness in fact achieves greatness.

The way is broad, reaching left as well as right.
The myriad creatures depend on it for life yet it claims no authority.
It accomplishes its task yet lays claim to no merit.
It clothes and feeds the myriad creatures yet lays no claim to beingtheir master.

For ever free of desire, it can be called small;
Yet as it lays no claim to being master when the myriad creatures turnto it, it can be called great.

It is because it never attempts itself to become great that it succeedsin becoming great.

The Way and Its Power – Dao De Jing I. 34. – Chinese on/off – Français/EnglishAlias Daode Jing, Dao De Jing, Tao Te Ching, Tao Teh Ching, le Tao-tö-king, Lao-Tzu Te-Tao Ching, the Laozi, Lao Zi, the Lao Tze, le Lao-tseu, The Book of the Way and its Virtue, the Way and its Power.